Crypto miners, AI and NFL, CERN's new dog-like robot, Honor Magic V2 and more
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Just 137 crypto miners use 2.3% of total U.S. power — government now requiring commercial miners to report energy consumption
The U.S Energy Information Administration (EIA) is now
requiring large-scale commercial cryptocurrency mining operations to report
their power consumption. This initiative is part of a larger effort to regulate
and penalize cryptocurrency mining due to the exorbitant amount of energy the
industry consumes yearly. For now, the EIA is only collecting data, but this
new data should give birth to new regulations that will penalize miners in the
future. This comes as the company has released a study (first reported on by
Inside Climate News) suggesting that cryptocurrency mining represents up to 2.3% of U.S. power demand.
How Tech Firms Made a Crypto-Boosting Book an NYT Best Seller by Gaming the System
Motherboard found that firms linked to a16z and general
partner Chris Dixon bought numerous copies of his new book promoting
cryptocurrencies, which became an NYT Best Seller.
WOMEN IN TECH
How AI is helping the NFL improve player safety
The NFL’s Digital Athlete platform, built with partner AWS,
uses computer vision and machine learning for predictive analytics to identify
plays and body positions most likely to lead to player injury.
CYBERSECURITY
The FCC Just Made Using AI-Faked Robocall Voices Illegal:
Here's How to Report These Calls
Singer Taylor Swift and President Joe Biden's voices are
among those that have been impersonated by scammers.
In January, a robocall impersonated President Joe Biden and
told Democrats not to vote in the New Hampshire primary. Now the Federal
Communications Commission has ruled that calls made with artificial
intelligence-generated voices are illegal, giving states a new way to go after
the people who create such calls. The ruling takes effect immediately.
EHEALTH
AI cannot be used to deny health care coverage, feds clarify to insurers
Health insurance companies cannot use algorithms or
artificial intelligence to determine care or deny coverage to members on
Medicare Advantage plans, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS) clarified in a memo sent to all Medicare Advantage insurers.
AI
The AI Deepfakes Problem Is Going to Get Unstoppably Worse
The world is being ripped apart by AI-generated deepfakes, and the latest half-assed attempts to stop them aren’t doing a thing. Federal regulators outlawed deepfake robocalls on Thursday, like the ones impersonating President Biden in New Hampshire’s primary election. Meanwhile, OpenAI and Google released watermarks this week to label images as AI-generated. However, these measures lack the teeth necessary to stop AI deepfakes.
Getting fresh: How supermarkets are using AI to predict sales
And a batch of European startups are helping them in the
fight against food waste
A supermarket deep in rural Germany had a problem. Far from
the ample workforce of the nearest city, the shop was staffed largely by local
teenagers still at school. The kids were motivated but inexperienced, says Avik
Mukhija, co-founder of retail tech startup Freshflow. He declines to reveal the
shop’s exact location.
ROBOTICS
CERN’s new dog-like robot detects radiation leaks in complex experiment areas
Scientists at CERN are trialling a new type of robot that
identify potential radiation leakages in environments challenging to navigate
both for humans and other robots employed at the research centre. Called the
CERNquadbot, the dog-like robot has successfully completed its radiation
protection test at the North Area, the facility’s largest experimental zone.
Research
Where do you get your news? Here's how to deepen your
understanding of current affairs – according to research.
Barely a month into 2024, it's difficult to know what shape
the year will take. But one thing seems certain: politically, it's high-stakes.
Elections will be held in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Bangladesh,
India, Taiwan, South Korea, and South Africa, for the European Parliament, and,
many predict, in the UK too. That's not to mention the international conflicts
in Israel-Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere, the climate crisis, explosion of AI,
and economic challenges – among the other large-scale problems that require an
informed and engaged public to help solve.
Cool Technology
Honor took its time in launching the Magic V2 globally, and
as a result, the phone is running last year's silicon and Android 13. It also
misses out on an IP rating and wireless charging, and the software doesn't have
the same level of polish as its rivals. But all of these issues fade into the
background once you actually start using the foldable.
Sensors made from 'frozen smoke' can detect toxic formaldehyde in homes and offices
Researchers have developed a sensor made from 'frozen smoke'
that uses artificial intelligence techniques to detect formaldehyde in real
time at concentrations as low as eight parts per billion, far beyond the
sensitivity of most indoor air quality sensors.
Top cybersecurity product news of the week - New product and service announcements from AppViewX, Fortanix, F5, Akamai, Teleport, Metomic, OPSWAT, and Varonis.
AppViewX, Fortanix partner to deliver secure digital
identity management and code signing
February 7: Machine identity management firm AppViewX and
data security company Fortanix are combining their solutions to deliver
cloud-based secure digital identity management with code signing in one
package. AppViewX’s Digital Trust Platform and Fortanix’s Data Security Manager
(DSM) together address two security use cases: the management of machine
identities across hybrid multi-cloud environments and simplified secure code
signing for improved software supply chain security, according to a joint press
release. The combined offering is available through either vendor, joint
channel partners, or the AWS Marketplace.
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